Valerio Olgiati

I don't quite know how Valerio Olgiati wasn't picked up on the STS' architectural radar before now. Everything written about him, and what I see of his buildings, is intriguing. For instance, this from Joao Morgado on MIMOA, about his design for a school in Paspels, Switzerland "It is a reinforced concrete monolith...at first glance the exterior geometry seems simple, closer study reveals a chain-like reaction of slight distortions that shroud the building in an air of strangeness." Olgiati talks about wonderful realism, but I think there is something else that makes him tick. He is looking for strangeness within the banal. In there interview this month Icon magazine seemed a bit annoyed by his attempts to make his buildings hard to understand, but why should they be easy to understand? Sure, buildings should have organisational clarity, but I think they should reveal themselves slowly, and be embued with character. So if I understand Olgiati right, I think he is right on the button.